Yard Work...Yuk!

The immaculate yard, with a beautifully manicured lawn, sculpted hedges, and flowerbeds flowing through it all providing a splash of color here and a punch of color there, is a very appealing concept...and if you've seen my yard you know it's just a concept for me! The reason is simple, I can't find any volunteers to do it for me! I don't even cut the grass until it's absolutely necessary, much less plant something else that would require even more attention.

After some self evaluation, I've determined that this repulsion for yard work is a result of my childhood. Cutting grass was my job when I was a kid. I always had better things to do and would wait until I was forced to do it by threat of imminent pain (yes, my parents were spankers! My mom's skill at wielding a flip-flop would cause a Samurai to drool!). Like most things that we have to do, this one chore grew to be despised.

You must also know that my dad considers anything that works properly, boring. If something does not require at least 1 hr. of tinkering before use, then he won't have it. One of his greatest joys is rescuing something from the trash and restoring it to "working" order. Guess where some of my equipment came from. He enjoys the challenge, I guess! So, now to do something that I loathe, I had to first work on the equipment to do it with. Of course, I learned to despise working on things almost as much as yard work! This pattern has continued into my adult life...largely due to the fact that until recently I was using Dad's hand-me-downs for yard work. You got it...someone's rescued trash, that Dad finally determined to be too much trouble, became mine!

Well, over the past few years I've gotten my own equipment that works properly most of the time, but still there's always things like, the string trimmer runs out of line just before you finish; you get all ready to go and don't have any gas to start, or even more frustrating, you start, almost finish and run out of gas; and my favorite, the mysterious "shut off" for no apparent reason. I'm cursed, I tell ya!

I cut grass this morning. The mower ran and cut wonderfully. The string trimmer had plenty of line and ran great. I had all the gas on the premises that I needed. What's that you say? The curse is broken. Did I mention the two wasp stings before I even got started!?! The one on the right arm was bad, but the one to the top of my left ear... oooooo, now that one smarted a little!

Yeah, the curse stands!!